[68] Bernaldez tells us (cap. xliv.) that in the town of Aracena alone, where the Inquisitors sought refuge from the pestilence, they set up a tribunal and burnt twenty-three persons alive in addition to the number of bodies they exhumed for the purpose.
[69] Bernaldez, cap. xliv.; Zuñiga, “Anales,” lib. xii. año 1481.
[70] “Historia de los Reyes Catolicos,” cap. xliv.
[71] See Llorente, “Historia Critica,” tom. i. p. 256 et seq.
[72] Fidel Fita in “Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia,” xxiii. p. 370.
[73] “Chronica,” part ii. cap. lxxvii.
[74] This, however, is a statement in which a misconception seems obvious. If the statues were of plaster (and it is Llorente himself who says so) they would not have stood the heat of furnaces placed beneath them. Moreover, since death in such ovens would have been more lingering and painful than at the stake, it is difficult to think upon what possible grounds, where all were equally guilty, any of the condemned should have been relegated to this further degree of torment, or—conversely—those who died at the stake should have been spared it. Besides, it is to be remembered that it was desired, and held desirable, that the victims should suffer in full view of the faithful. But the mistake which has crept in can be indicated. What Bernaldez actually says is: “Ficieron facer aquel quemadero en Tablado con aquellos quatro profetas de yeso en que los quemaban.” The “en que” may refer either to the Quemadero generally or to the statues in particular. But there can be little doubt that it refers to the Quemadero, and that Llorente was mistaken in assuming it to refer to the statues.
A curious instance of adapting the shape of a fact so that it will fit the idea to be conveyed is afforded in this connection by Dr. Rule, who calmly alters the substance of the statues, translating yeso as “limestone.” “Hist. of the Inquisition,” vol. i. p. 134.
[75] Garcia Rodrigo tells us that the architect of this elaborate altar of intolerance was a New-Christian of such zeal that he found employment in the Holy Office as one of its receivers, but that being discovered in Judaizing practices he was himself burnt on the Quemadero he had erected. No authority is furnished for the story, nor does Llorante mention it, and one is inclined to place it in the category of fables such as that which relates how the first head to be shorn off by the guillotine was that of its inventor, Dr. Guillotin.
[76] Paramo, “De Origine,” p. 133. Llorente quotes this brief from Lumbreras, adding that the original is in the royal library. See his “Memoria Historica,” p. 260.